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Tuesday
Friday 26th October
Comcast sales up, earnings flat
AT&T shopping for DTH?
3 Italia to become integrated TV provider
Microsoft stake in Facebook
Test group prepares Hong Kong digital television
No subsidies for DTV in North Rhine-Westphalia
Miniweb from SkyKeys MBO
Five VOD to go free
Mobile TV for Kenya
CASBAA extends membership
NDS launches Metro HD DVR
Comcast sales up, earnings flatComcast earnings fell sharply in the third quarter in the context of a year-earlier gain related to its acquisition of cable systems from Adelphia Communications. Comcast's net income fell 54 per cent to $560 million (E391m), compared with $1.22 billion, a year earlier. Most of the profit decline came from a year-earlier gain of $669 million related to Comcast's acquisition of cable systems from Adelphia. Excluding those gains, Comcast's net income rose 2 per cent. Revenue climbed 21 per cent to $7.78 billion from $6.43 billion.
Comcast's results underscore cable companies continued flagging growth rates of basic-television subscriptions and high-speed Internet. Investors have revised their expectations for Comcast and its peers amid stiffer competition from satellite-TV companies and new services such as Verizon’s FiOS. Cable stocks have fallen since the summer, with Comcast's Class-A shares down nearly 20 per cent in three months.
As Comcast rolls out new services, it has also ramped up capital spending, which increased 20 per cent in the quarter to $1.5 billion. Comcast has cautioned investors about higher capital spending this year.
AT&T has been rumoured to be examining a bid for a DTH operator for some time and is now set to pounce, according to reports.
The telco is said to have been consulting lawyers in Washington to see how long it would take to get government approval to buy either EchoStar Communications or DirecTV. The most recent market speculation has been that AT&T could make a bid for EchoStar to expand into satellite television to better compete with rivals like Verizon.
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3 Italia to become integrated TV provider
From Branislav Pekic in Rome3 Italia, the mobile media company owned by the Hutchison Whampoa group, aims to become a integrated fixed/mobile TV provider for digital terrestrial TV from 2010.
According to CEO Vincenzo Novari, from the summer of 2010 their network will be converted, allocating 50 per cent for mobile phones and 50 per cent for the four channels that will be available in all Italian homes. The goal, he adds, is to arrive prepared for 2012, when analogue TV transmissions will be switched off in favour of digital.
3 Italia’s network is capable of transmitting dedicated digital mobile channels for mobile phones, to which can be added in the future up to four DTT channels.
Since June 2006, the number of users of the DVB-H service of 3 Italia have reached 770,000 with an average daily viewing time of one hour, claims Novari. The operator has achieved 80 per cent coverage of the country, putting it on the same levels as terrestrial broadcasters RAI and Mediaset.
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Microsoft stake in FacebookMicrosoft has beaten off competition from Google to pay $240 million for a 1.6 per cent stake in Facebook that values the popular social networking site at $15 billion. Microsoft will also sell internet ads for Facebook outside the United States as part of the deal that took several weeks of negotiating. Microsoft already provides banner advertising and links on the US site.
Mark Zuckerberg, 23, founder of Facebook, has indicated he would like to hold off on an initial public offering for at least two more years. Facebook hopes to become an advertising magnet by substantially increasing its current audience of nearly 50 million active users.
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Test group prepares Hong Kong digital television
The group - Hong Kong Digital Terrestrial Television Local Testing Group - is to support both the rollout and testing of digital TV broadcasting technology in Hong Kong, particularly the testing of set-top boxes and digital TV sets, its business development and technology support.
"Our testing can help manufacturers from Hong Kong, the mainland and other countries obtain the voluntary labels issued by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority, which will certify the digital TV broadcasting technology of products," said I Chih- lin, ASTRI's communications technologies group vice president and group director.
The Hong Kong government has been discussing for years the introduction of digital broadcasting for free-TV operators. The territory's two terrestrial TV broadcasters - ATV and TVB - will roll out the digital broadcast service by year-end, paving the way for the existing analogue service to be shut off by 2012.
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No subsidies for DTV in North Rhine-WestphaliaThe European Commission has decided that plans to finance part of the fees commercial broadcasters pay for the transmission of their programmes on the DVB-T network in North Rhine-Westphalia are not compatible with the EC state aid rules. The Commission said it fully supported the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, however, the proposed measures fail to identify properly the problem that requires state aid, and to choose appropriate and non-discriminatory means of funding.
Miniweb Interactive Limited has launched with the intention of delivering a unique interactive TV experience, combining TV viewing, online services and interactive advertising across multiple TV distribution systems. The privately funded, UK h company has been formed following a management buy-out of the assets and infrastructure of the SkyKeys/Internet Sites service and the global licensing of TV browser technology from BSkyB. Miniweb will replace the current SkyKeys/Internet Sites service with a new environment which will be available in over 8.5 million BSkyB households by the end of 2007.
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Five VOD to go freeUK broadcaster Five is set to expand its online TV download offering in the new year. Five intends to move away from making paid for content viewable in a 14-day window and to instead offer an ad-suppoorted VOD service. The broadcaster is also reportedly looking into gaining carriage on a pay-TV platform such as Virgin Media.
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A mobile TV service has launched in Nairobi. The service, DStv Mobile, was launched by Digital Mobile TV (DMTV) Limited of South Africa using DVB-H technology.
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CASBAA extends membershipThe Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has announced four new Corporate Members of the Association, along with one up-graded membership from Corporate to Patron status. The four organisations signed up are Corporate Members are US-based software, services and IT solutions provider Microsoft Corporation; European broadcaster Deutsche Welle; global private equity firm Providence Equity Partners and US-based religious television network TBN. The newly up-graded Patron Member is Netherlands-based satellite communication services provider SES New Skies.
CASBAA now represents the interests of some 128 member companies from across 15 Asia Pacific markets.
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NDS launches Metro HD DVRNDS has introduced its HD DVR, an Amino AmiNET530 set-top box powered by Metro middleware, for the IPTV market. NDS Metro is an integrated IPTV middleware and conditional access solution that provides a complete end-to-end offering for telecommunications companies and broadband operators.
SES Americom, the only company delivering MPEG4 IPTV service to telcos in the US, is the first customer and will integrate the HD DVR solution into its IP-Prime IPTV solution for service providers.
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Thursday 25th October
Google, Nielsen ad serve research
AT&T sceptical on mobile TV
Research says mobile video expands in US
Broadcasters lose on poor download
Dave TV hailed
ASA cans Sky ad
PCCW to form Taiwan cable TV with Chunghwa
ITN content free on iTunes
IP-Prime and Packet Vision ad insertion for IPTV
Paris mobile TV down the tube
Verizon Minisode Network
Latens for Farmers
Google, Nielsen ad serve research
Google has announced a deal with Nielsen that will see the TV ratings company provide it with demographic data for TV audiences, strengthening its plans to become a significant player in TV ad sales. In April Google revealed it was conducting trials of TV ad serving along with partners EchoStar and Astound Cable.
The Nielsen deal will now allow Google to obtain data from set-top boxes from households across the US that use Echostar's Dish Network, letting them understand the effectiveness of ads and viewer information, such as gender and age.
David Calhoun, chairman and CEO of the The Nielsen Company, also hinted that the deal might be extended to see Nielsen provide data for other areas. "The relationship with Google - which we expect will expand significantly in the months ahead - is a prime example of the ways Nielsen is embracing new technologies, platforms and relationships worldwide to serve clients more completely, to provide companies with its insights and to help expand the base of potential advertisers everywhere."
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Mobile video is struggling because the economics don’t work yet, so says Mark Collins, vice president of consumer data services for AT&T. He said that every major U.S. carrier, including Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, is looking at video as a potential driver of data traffic and revenue. But so far, Collins says, no one has figured out how to deliver the video that consumers want at a price they’re willing to pay – while still managing to compensate Hollywood studios and carriers for their part.
"Everything that we’re doing on mobile is sort of the opposite of what customers are doing with their own consumption habits," Collins says. "Bigger screens, higher resolution, on-demand, long-form content – I can’t really do any of that right now."
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Research says mobile video expands in USM:Metrics, the mobile media authority, reports that the mobile video market in the US is growing. At 8 million in August, the total audience for those who viewed mobile video, either from the carrier or video content sent by a friend or family member, grew by 34 per cent from January of this year.
With 6.8 million viewers, viral video is the most popular type of video content in the US, a figure that increased by 36 per cent since January. The audience viewing programmed mobile video, meaning video content delivered on-deck over the carrier network, stands at 2.7 million, up 28 per cent from the beginning of the year.
"The sizable growth of operator-programmed mobile TV in the US is due to the aggressive promotion of these services, broader diffusion of 3G handsets and a deeper focus from content companies," said Seamus McAteer, chief product architect and senior analyst.
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Broadcasters lose on poor downloadNew research from Vividas reveals that issues including complicated set up, slow to download files and crashing content are cited as a major barrier to consumer take-up of watching video online. The research also shows that poor picture quality and incomplete downloads cost a quarter of broadcasters up to £10,000 (E14.5k) in customer refunds and the resolving of IT issues. Streaming video was found to be five times less frustrating for the viewer than battling with content that is delivered as a download.
Large data packages are causing headaches to the ISPs, who are already experiencing problems in delivering increasing volumes of media-rich traffic over their networks. Delivery issues can only rise as consumers continue to scour the net for video.
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Dave TV hailedUKTV has hailed the launch of the Dave channel (which replaced UKG2) as a success, with ratings for the company's overall Freeview offering up 27 per cent in the channel's first week. Dave attracted a share of 2.2 per cent in Freeview homes in its first full week after its debut on October 15, UKTV said. Between them, Dave and UKTV's other Freeview channel, daytime strand UKTV History, accounted for a 3 per cent share of Freeview viewing last week.
Across all multichannel viewing, including cable and satellite homes, Dave reached 10.7 million viewers last week, representing a 1.33 per ent share of the total multichannel audience.
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ASA cans Sky adThe UK ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) has banned a Sky advert following complaints over the claim that new and existing customers get equally good deals with the company.
The advert claimed that Virgin Media's policy was to give better deals to new customers, stated: "At Sky we think it's wrong to advertise attractive sounding prices that are often only available to new customers, not loyal ones. We believe it's right that all our customers should enjoy consistently low prices across all our products."
Complaints included that the offer of a free Sky+ box and free installation only applied to new customers. BSkyB argued that new and existing customers paid the same standard prices for subscription services and satellite equipment.
PCCW to form Taiwan cable TV with ChunghwaHong Kong’s PCCW is to form a cable TV joint venture with Chunghwa Telecom , Taiwan's largest fixed line operator. PCCW will introduce its ‘Now’ broadband TV platform to the Taiwan market by the end of this year. Chunghwa has already applied to Taiwan's telecoms regulator for a licence to offer the new service.
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ITN content free on iTunesITN is making its mobile news and entertainment content available for free to ipod users and other portable video players. The deal will allow customers to download ITN’s latest news and entertainment programming from Apple’s iTunes. The service will be funded by a short pre-roll advertisement on each download.
IP-Prime and Packet Vision ad insertion for IPTV
SES Americom has teamed with advertising technology specialist Packet Vision, to enable telecommunications carriers using SES Americom's IP-Prime IPTV service to generate advertising revenue through the insertion of targeted local ads.
SES says using Packet Vision's advanced IP-based advertising solution, operators offering IP-Prime service will be able to maximise the use of their local ad avails by inserting ads for local and nationwide companies that are specifically directed to selected groups of consumers based on geographic locations or demographic profiles.
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French broadcasting regulator the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel is allowing broadcast transmission specialist TDF to carry out a trial of personal mobile television in the stations and tunnels of Paris’s urban transport network. The three-month trial ends on January 15 2008.
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Verizon Minisode NetworkVerizon Wireless has formed an agreement with Sony Pictures Television to offer The Minisode Network on V CAST. The channel offers four to six minute versions of the studio’s television shows and allows customers with V CAST-enabled phones to watch the minisodes through their mobile phones. The shows offered as minisodes include classics such as ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ and ‘Charlie’s Angels’.
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Latens Systems announced that Farmers Telephone Cooperative, in South Carolina, has selected Latens’ Foundation CA Solution (FCAS) to secure its IPTV services. FTC has chosen the pre-integrated Latens and Minerva solution, which comprises Latens FCAS and Minerva’s iTV Manager middleware. This will run on set-top boxes from Motorola and ADB, to provide FTC with a highly flexible and secure IPTV delivery system.
FTC provides cutting-edge technology to over 60,000 business and residential customers within a coverage range of over 3,000 miles. The company’s IPTV offering is latest service to be launched on its network.
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Wednesday 24th October
NBC blanks YouTube ready for Hulu
Digiturk hopes for $550m in IPO
EchoStar Unveils ViP-TV
ITU contemplate digital television spectrum
Pay-TV pilot on DTT in Spain
Eutelsat Q1 sales up 6%
NDS VideoGuard Express for Indian cable
UNE-EPM selects Orca
Thomson watermarking for GDC digital cinema
NBC blanks YouTube ready for HuluNBC Universal has removed all its video clips from YouTube and closed a promotional channel on the site in advance of the launch next week of its own rival service, Hulu. NBC said it was intended to provide a boost to Hulu, which is a joint venture with News Corp’s Fox division, and did not represent a new, tougher line that the company was taking against Google.
"Down the road, we will be open to promoting our content as we see fit," the company said, adding that NBC was "not closing the door on anything". Meanwhile, a YouTube spokesperson said NBC had informed them of their plans on Friday, and added: "Our relationship with NBC was a YouTube success story, so we hope NBC decides to post more original content and stay engaged with our users."
The massive popularity on YouTube of Lazy Sunday, an NBC Saturday Night Live clip, was a watershed in revealing the new medium’s ability to circulate video to millions of viewers on the internet.Since then, NBC and other networks have posted promotional clips for programmes on the site.
NBC and News Corp have promoted Hulu as a way to supply their professionally made video to online audiences in an environment that respects copyrights.
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Digiturk hopes for $550m in IPO
Digiturk, Turkey's largest digital television broadcaster, plans to raise as much as $550 million (E386m) in an IPO of 25 per cent of its business.
The company is controlled by Istanbul conglomerate Cukurova and Providence Equity Partners. The pair are selling down their holding from 100 to 75 per cent. The Turkish media sector is experiencing a boom as the country's strong economic performance drives up advertising revenues. Last year Turkish companies spent 3.7 billion lira (E2.1bn) on advertising, a 23 per cent jump from 2005.
In the six months to June Digiturk derived 73 per cent of its revenues from subscription fees and 19 per cent from advertising and sponsorship. Founded in 1999, Digiturk broadcasts 151 Turkish and international channels, 99 of which are exclusive to the provider, and has 1.77 million subscribers.
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EchoStar and its subsidiary EchoStar FSS have unveiled ViP-TV, an IP-based service that will transport more than 300 channels of secure broadcast programming delivered via satellite to telco, private and rural cable operators, municipalities and master planned community video providers.EchoStar described ViP-TV as its turnkey solution for wholesale multichannel content transport and distribution. The offering promises customers affordable, scalable and aggregated MPEG-4 IP encapsulated audio and video programming channels from a high-powered Ku-Band satellite, the company said.
ViP-TV's suite of channels includes ViP-Premier, which offers more than 100 channels of programming. There's also ViP-HD, which has 40 channels of high-def programming, and ViP-Movies, delivering a menu of 40 movie services. The service also offers ViP-Latino, offering 30 Spanish-language programming services, and ViP-International, offering more than 30 programming channels in 10 different languages. The service will rival IP Prime from SES Americom.
"ViP-TV is one of the most comprehensive video IP transport and distribution platforms available in the marketplace," said Michael Kelly, executive vice president of EchoStar Fixed Satellite Services. "More than just programming, it is a premier service buoyed by industry-leading technology, service and support."
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ITU contemplate digital television spectrumThe US has led calls to allocate a significant chunk of the radio frequency spectrum for use by digital television. On the opening day the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), US delegation leader Richard Russell said it was important that countries identify sections or 'bands' of wavelengths to be used exclusively for advanced wireless services. The ITU is empowered to allocate frequencies for commercial use among its member countries.
Identifying frequency space for digital television and other wireless technologies would act as an incentive for companies to develop such products for a global market, Russell said. He estimated the market value of freeing up spectrum space could be worth $10 billion to $15 billion in the US alone.
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Pay-TV pilot on DTT in SpainTV producer Mediapro, technology company SIDSA, electronic manufacturer SIEMENS-InOutTV, Consultancy firm SDIdigital and operador Telecom Castilla-La Mancha, along with the Town Council of Alcázar de San Juan, have launched a pay-TV pilot.
The six companies are offering a pay-per-view football match from the Italian Football League, as well as successful films from the producers Filmax and Manga Films.
It is one of the first pay-TV initiatives on DTT in Spain and forms part of the project called "DTT Digital Alcázar". The pay-TV transmissions may be received through Siemens set-top-boxes that have the InOutTV service integrated, that’s more than 500,000 units, representing 15 per cent of the total.
All DTT broadcasters interested in the initiative will have the opportunity to market their own events as the KeyFly system and the pay platform Bulevar Digital, already compatible with Siemens-InOut TV decoders, may co-exist with other technologies. KeyFly is a technology developed by the Spanish company SIDSA and is already being used by, among others, Al Jazeera Sports TV in its pay-per-view transmissions and by the Spanish TV group RTVE for its international transmissions.
To buy the event, the viewer must send a SMS message to a number that appears on the promotional spot of the programme on the tuned channel so that the system can allow that particular set-top-box to have access to the programme. With this technology, the companies plan to launch for the 2008-2009 season a wide selection of sports and premium pay-per-view events.
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Eutelsat Q1 sales up 6%Eutelsat Communications said sales jumped 6.2 per cent to E211.9 million in its first quarter to September from E199.5 million a year earlier thanks to "the continuing good performance of our markets." For the year to June 2008, Eutelsat reiterated targets of sales of E840-850 million and an EBITDA margin of more than 77.5 per cent.
"Our video and broadband services continue to benefit from the overall strong dynamics of broadcasting and internet markets," Giuliano Berretta, chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
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NDS VideoGuard Express for Indian cable
NDS, provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has launched a new solution for the Indian cable TV market. NDS VideoGuard Express delivers robust CAS security and has been pre-integrated with a set-top box and electronic programme guide (EPG) ready for fast deployment. The system includes the VideoGuard Express headend and patented smart card technology. NDS VideoGuard Express offers fast channel change time and delivers a user experience with real impact. The system incorporates a convenient upgrade path to implement MediaHighway middleware, enabling advanced pay TV and interactive services including NDS fully customisable EPG, call centre based pay-per-view (OPPV) and NVOD.
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UNE-EPM selects OrcaOrca Interactive, provider of IPTV middleware and applications, has confirmed that UNE-EPM Telecommunications, provider of Internet, telephony and television services in Colombia, has selected Orca’s advanced RiGHTv middleware to enable the first IPTV service rollout in Colombia. The IPTV deployment will be carried out by Union Electrica Orca’s partner and system integrator in the project, providing a seamless, end-to-end solution. UNE-EPM Telecommunications‚ IPTV service is expected to be available in major cities across Colombia in the first quarter of 2008.
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Thomson watermarking for GDC digital cinemaThomson has revealed that GDC, provider of soultions for digital cinema, has selected NexGuard, Thomson’s comprehensive forensic tracking product line, for integration into 1,200 digital cinema servers. GDC digital cinema servers will now embed NexGuard’s audio and visual forensic watermarking solution. NexGuard combats in-theatre piracy by offering forensic means to identify the date, time and location of illegal camcorder recordings.
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Tuesday 23rd October
Future of DTV depends on ITU decisions
Viacom won’t back down on Google
EDS begins Sky defence
MySpaceTV originals
FACT shuts pirate site
Gilat assesses bids
Ofcom warns adult channels
Virgin emphasises broadband
Axiom.TV family-focused Internet TV channel
Vecima for Red Helio
Nortel and Widevine protect IPTV content
Future of DTV depends on ITU decisionsAccording to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the future of digital TV could be adversely affected by decisions taken at the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07) opening this week in Geneva.
One of the items on the Conference's agenda concerns the identification of frequency bands for international mobile telecommunications (IMT) services. The bands under consideration include UHF Bands IV & V in ITU Region 1, i.e. Europe, Africa and parts of the Middle East, which are currently used for TV broadcasting. "In many European countries, digital terrestrial TV in these bands has already become a major success based on the availability of free-to-air TV services" says Lieven Vermaele, EBU Technical Director. "However, this success story could be jeopardised by the introduction of mobile phone services in broadcasting frequency bands."
Interference problems can easily arise when a number of services are deployed in the same frequency bands. A recent study of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), which represents 48 EU countries, highlighted the problem of potential interference between mobile phones and TV services. CEPT suggests that further technical studies are necessary in this area and therefore allocations to the mobile service in relevant parts of the band 470 - 862 MHz should be considered only at the next WRC in 2011.
In view of the many uncertainties about interference issues, the EBU strongly endorses CEPT's position. "We urge ITU to wait and study the options before making any decision on band sharing," says Lieven Vermaele, "in 2011 the picture will be much clearer."
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Viacom won’t back down on Google
Viacom has stated that it will not drop its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube parent Google. Philippe Dauman, Viacom's chief executive, said that Google had not done enough to prevent content from being illegally uploaded to YouTube.Viacom, owners of MTV and Nickelodeon, claims that Google allowed more than 160,000 clips of its programming to be uploaded to YouTube, the video-sharing website it owns. Google denies that is infringing Viacom's copyright, and claims that it removes unauthorised videos from YouTube when asked to by content owners.
Dauman said he had "an open mind" with regards to reaching an agreement with Google, which he described as a "responsible company", but that a settlement "wasn't quite there yet".
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EDS begins Sky defenceLawyers for Electronic Data Systems will hit back at charges by British Sky Broadcasting that the US IT outsourcing company deceived Sky when it put in an ill-fated bid to build a "world class" customer-care centre to look after its subscribers.
BSkyB alleges that EDS misrepresented its capabilities in order to secure the £48 million (E69m) deal in July 2000. But, in one of the largest legal fights played out in London’s specialist technology and construction court, the US group’s lawyers will claim that BSkyB didn’t know what it wanted – but was determined to force down the cost in any event.
As if to underscore the broadcaster’s lack of realism, they will point out that it took BSkyB six years to complete the project, and that the bill ultimately ran to more than £265 million. The reputations of the companies are at stake, as well as those of other members of the EDS consortium, such as Lucent and Chordiant Software.
Also involved is financial consultancy PwC, which made an unsuccessful rival bid for the project and then advised Sky on EDS’s progress. The original deal between Sky and EDS contained a £30m liability cap for any breach of contract. But this has been overridden because Sky is claiming that the Texas-based group acted dishonestly. The broadcaster is asking for £709m in damages. That figure, it claims, reflects the additional costs which had to be incurred to complete the project, compared with the likely bill had PwC handled the work, and the lost business benefits.
Court papers show there were difficulties from the outset. EDS claims Sky took more than five months to make its selection of prime contractor – and that it then took another four months to conclude a contract. Even then, it says, there was only a "preliminary specification" for what Sky required – and, as more details began to emerge, the complexity of the system multiplied.
Sky acknowledges that the decision to appoint EDS was "not straightforward" and that top executives were split over whether to go with the US company or PwC.
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MySpaceTV originalsMySpaceTV unveiled its first original Web series to give its users a television-like experience with the interactive benefits of the Internet. "Roommates" will track the lives of four women in their 20s who have recently graduated from college and are living together in Los Angeles.
The Web show runs through December for a total of 45 episodes. A new, three-minute segment will play each day, Monday through Friday at 4pm EDT (9pm British time).
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FACT shuts pirate siteThe first closure of a major UK-based pay-TV pirate site was accompanied by raids and an arrest, the anti-piracy group Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) has reported.
Kieron Sharp, FACT Director General, said: "We at FACT have stated very clearly that we intended to pursue those who are openly exploiting and facilitating the distribution of illegal film and TV content and this was the first major target."
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Gilat assesses bidsGilat the Israeli satellite network group, is evaluating interest from several strategic and private equity buyers in buying the company. The company, which is listed on Nasdaq in the US and in Israel, could fetch more than $500m in a sale. Bids are due at the end of this week.
Participating in the auction are several buy-out firms, including Gores Group of California and Apollo Management, which has made numerous satellite investments in recent years and could fold Gilat into Hughes, one of its portfolio companies. Also in the running for Gilat is ViaSat, a California-based rival satellite networking group.
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Ofcom has warned that all adult channels face being encrypted following a spate of complaints over explicit content including allegations of on-air masturbation and the promotion of premium-rate services. The media regulator has upheld complaints against five free-to-air unencrypted outlets known as "babe" channels, in which scantily clad women invite viewers to contact them via premium-rate services.
"Babe" channels, while they are listed in the adult section of the electronic programme guide, are not supposed to show adult sex material, unlike subscriber-only encrypted porn channels.
Ofcom said that despite "significant improvements" being made following a warning letter it sent out last year, concerns still remained about the channels' sexual content and their promotion of premium-rate phone lines that are not connected to the editorial content of programmes.
Ofcom reprimanded the "babe" channels Get Lucky TV, Lucky Star, Star Bazaar, LivexxxBabes and Show Off UK over breaches of the broadcasting code.
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Virgin emphasises broadbandVirgin Media seems to acknowledge that it cannot compete with Sky in premium pay-TV and is instead planning to entice customers with an updated broadband services.
Acting chief executive Neil Berkett wants to move the focus away from TV and onto more mass-market households who do not need Sky's sports and movie channels but do want more than basic Freeview digital TV. Virgin Media hopes these households can be tempted with IPTV services such as video on demand that require fast broadband. "Despite our technical advantage we are still not really standing out from the crowd," said Berkett. "I really do want to re-focus our energies onto the broadband platform."
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Axiom.TV family-focused Internet TV channelAxiom.TV is set to Beta launch the first comprehensive technology to make Internet TV user- friendly, legal and safe for families. To celebrate its international Beta launch, Axiom.TV will give away the movie ‘Benji’ to the first 33’000 subscribers. Axiom.TV is currently in final negotiations with several of the major studios for additional movie content, soon to be released.
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Vecima Networks has been selected by Red Helio and a number of its service provision partners ("Red Helio") to supply a customized 5.25-5.80 GHz Broadband Wireless Internet Network ("BWIN") solution of base stations and customer premise equipment (CPE) for deployment covering the county of Murcia, Spain.
Red Helio expects to extend the network of Vecima branded BWIN systems to cover their entire subscriber base in Spain, a network of approximately 70,000 homes and businesses. Today’s initial contract announcement calls for 2,200 CPEs and 30 base stations representing only a fractional portion of the entire roll-out.
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Nortel and Widevine protect IPTV contentNortel and Widevine Technologies have revealed that Widevine’s content security solution has been integrated into Nortel’s IPTV solution to protect telco operators’ revenue streams and enable premium content licensing. This has been accomplished with the signing of a global reseller agreement. Nortel and Widevine have won multiple customers and are in trials at Telcos around the world.
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Monday 22nd October
Media giant principals to combat piracy
Google growth double online average
TV still works for brands
Sky News digital radio hits wall
Police may probe ITV phone scandal
Dailymotion and Canal+ in content protection accord
Pace Micro on track
DirecTV sues Cox over HDTV ads
Taiwan YouTube
Media giant principals to combat piracyA group of digital media heavyweights have issued a set of guidelines on copyright protection. The group--including Viacom, Walt Disney, Microsoft, Fox, MySpace and NBC Universal--agreed to use technology to purge pirated content circulating online, and to stop such material before it becomes widely available. "These principles offer a road map for unlocking the enormous potential of online video and user-generated content," Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement.
Jeff Zucker, president and CEO of NBC Universal, commented. "This announcement marks a significant step in transforming the Internet to a popular medium that respects the rule of law."
The guidelines include the "implementation of state of the art filtering technology with the goal to eliminate infringing content," "upgrading technology when commercially reasonable," and "cooperation in developing procedures for promptly addressing claims that content was blocked in error."
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Google growth double online average
Google said net income in the third quarter surged 46 per cent compared with the period a year earlier. Sales rose 57 per cent, topping Wall Street’s bullish forecasts.The results show that Google is growing roughly twice as fast as the overall online advertising market, which itself is booming, and that it is expanding far more quickly than any large Internet company. Google’s rival Yahoo said its revenues had grown just 12 per cent.
Google said its net income grew to $1.07 billion (E0.75bn) , up from $733 million a year earlier. Net revenue rose to $4.23 billion. Excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, a widely followed measure of the company’s performance, revenue was $3.01 billion, about $70 million higher than analysts expected. Profit, excluding items like stock-based compensation, was $1.24 billion.
Over time TV ads have an enduring impact with advertisers reaping benefits from campaigns begun a year earlier, claims one of the biggest studies of its kind.
Researchers looked at the impact of marketing for several hundred brands in haircare, cereals, juice and motor insurance. The work commissioned from PwC, the professional services group, and Thinkbox, commercial television’s trade body, will be used to argue that TV advertising remains effective despite changing consumer habits, especially rising internet usage.
These views have been reinforced by a modest rise in expenditure on television advertising, which means the TV industry is now expected to show nominal growth of about 2 per cent in 2007 after reporting a decline last year.
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Sky News digital radio hits wallPlans to launch a radio version of Sky News have been thrown into doubt after Global Radio pulled out of the joint venture. Sky News Radio was due to launch on Global's AM frequency in London and as a national digital radio station on Channel 4's digital multiplex next year.
But in a joint statement from Sky and Global Radio, the pair said they would not proceed with the news radio service "for commercial reasons". The joint venture was proposed before Chrysalis Radio's £170 million (E246m) takeover by Global in August this year.
Sky is now in discussions with other third parties about launching the rolling news service, but a spokesman was unable to confirm that the station would definitely launch next year.
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Police may probe ITV phone scandalUK police may investigate the ITV phone-in scandal affair if asked to by Ofcom, and it is already reviewing evidence in the GMTV case. On ITV, the Metropolitan Police said it would take its cue from Ofcom, the media and telecoms regulator, which is planning to investigate the affair.
Ofcom said: "ITV’s review of its premium rate telephone services has identified a number of serious issues in the conduct of votes and competitions in its programmes. These appear to raise questions for Ofcom ... Ofcom will be investigating the cases which have come to light ... and has requested all relevant information from ITV."
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Dailymotion and Canal+ in content protection accord
Canal+ and video-sharing site Dailymotion are joining forces to work towards better protection of Canal+ content on Dailymotion. Following discussions Dailymotion and Canal+ have agreed to co-operate closely in the detection of Canal+ programmes that are rights-protected.
"Dailymotion has made it a point of honour to be the preferred partner of players in the media world and cultural streams of music and film," commented Mark Zaleski, Dailymotion President, who added that in the space of a few months, the company had integrated leading technologies such as audio fingerprinting and would soon be adding video fingerprinting - to prevent protected videos being put online.
Mike McTighe, Chairman of Pace Micro Technology said "I am pleased to say that Pace is on track to meet the Board’s recently revised expectations for the shortened 2007 financial year. As previously stated this strong performance is due to us exceeding margin improvement targets across the range of Pace’s set-top box products following management action to improve operational and business efficiencies, and an exceptional performance from our US business for this period."
"While the current exceptional sales performance in the US, as previously noted, is anticipated to adjust to more sustainable levels in 2008, Pace has continued to develop its business across all of the major world markets for payTV. In these markets the momentum towards high definition is increasing and demand for PVR products continues to grow. Pace has announced new business with BSkyB, won new business for high definition PVRs and interactive standard definition products with Multichoice of South Africa, and continued to extend the number of cable customers it serves in the US."
"The Board continues to be confident that Pace, will meet its expectations for the 2008 financial year."
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DirecTV sues Cox over HDTV adsIn the latest tit-for-tat DirecTV has sued Cox Communications, charging the cable operator with making false claims about its High-Definition picture. The lawsuit charges that Cox's Internet ads include "false and misleading statements" about the HD quality of its picture versus DirecTV's HD picture.
DirecTV's lawsuit targets a section at Cox's web site that cites the results of a Comcast survey showing cable has a better picture than satellite. DirecTV disputes the results of the study, which was done by Frank N. Magid Associates.
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Taiwan YouTubeYouTube has launched a local version of the video-sharing site in Taiwan, in its latest push to expand in foreign markets. The interface of the site is in Chinese and the site features locally produced content, including that from YouTube's four Taiwan media partners: China Television, Sanlih E-Television, Lion Travel Service and Taiwan Broadcasting System.
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